The Black Crowes have split, guitarist Rich Robinson announces

The Black Crowes’ guitarist Rich Robinson has announced that the band have split due to a disagreement with his brother, the band’s frontman Chris Robinson.

“It is with great disappointment and regret that after having the privilege of writing and performing the music of the Black Crowes over the last 24 years, I find myself in the position of saying that the band has broken up,” Robinson said in a statement.

“I hold my time with the Black Crowes with the utmost respect and sincerest appreciation. It is a huge swath of my life’s body of work. I couldn’t be more proud of what we accomplished and deeply moved by the relationships people created and maintained with my music.

“That alone is the greatest honor of being a musician. I love my brother and respect his talent, but his present demand that I must give up my equal share of the band and that our drummer for 28 years and original partner, Steve Gorman, relinquish 100 percent of his share, reducing him to a salaried employee, is not something I could agree to.”

Rich and Chris Robinson have been publicly feuding since the early days of the Black Crowes and have twice put the band on a hiatus.

“There are so many people who have helped and supported us along the way,” Robinson added. “I want to give a heartfelt thank you to all of our fans, our friends behind the scenes, and to everyone who was a part of the Black Crowes.”

The Black Crowes’ last album of new material, ‘Before the Frost… Until the Freeze’, was released in 2009. The band released two further records after that: ‘Croweology’, an album of acoustic reworkings from their back-catalogue in 2010, and live album ‘Wiser for the Time’ in 2013.